Two supermarkets have announced that they are putting an age restriction on the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks.

Both Asda and Aldi have said they are banning the sale of the beverages to children under 16 from early March, in a response to growing health concerns.

It comes after Waitrose said they would ask people to prove they were over 16 when buying drinks with a high caffeine content earlier this month, the Mirror Online reports.

Asda, which is the first of the "big four" supermarkets to make such an announcement, said customers wishing to buy these products, either in store or online, from Monday, March 5 would need to be willing to show appropriate ID.

Asda is the first of the 'big four' supermarkets to make such an announcement (Image: Chris Radburn/PA Wire)

Andrew Murray, Asda's chief customer officer, said: "We take our responsibilities as a retailer seriously and work hard to ensure we get the balance right between offering choice and doing the right thing.

"We have listened to our customers and want to take a leading position in this area to support parents and teachers in limiting young people's access to high caffeine drinks."

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Aldi has also announced that customers buying soft drinks containing more than 150mg of caffeine per litre from any of its UK or Ireland stores will be asked to prove their age from March 1.

Oliver King, managing director of corporate responsibility at Aldi, said: "We are introducing this age restriction in response to growing concern about the consumption of energy drinks among young people."

Aldi has also introduced the age restriction (Image: Getty Images Europe)

Earlier this month, Waitrose said customers buying drinks containing more than 150mg of caffeine per litre would be asked to prove they are over 16 years of age from March 5.

The move follows calls by campaigners for a complete ban on the sale of energy drinks to children following findings that their sugar and caffeine content remains high despite reformulation ahead of the soft drinks levy.

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Kawther Hashem, nutritionist at campaign group Action on Sugar (AoS) at Queen Mary University of London, said: "We are delighted to see that Asda has followed Waitrose's lead with its ban on energy drinks and hope all the other big retailers will comply.

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Youngsters in the UK are among the highest consumers of energy drinks in Europe, figures have shown.

The British Soft Drinks Association introduced a voluntary code of practice in 2010 stating that high-caffeine soft drinks should not be promoted or marketed to those under 16. Mirror Online has approached them for comment.